Whitehaven Pits, Cumbria

Whitehaven Pits, Cumbria

Whitehaven Pits, Cumbria

The Whitehaven area of Cumbria was once a major mining centre with numerous coal and metal mines in the surrounding area. The harbour (built by the Lowther family - major local mine owners) was a busy coal port - in addition to being a major centre for ship building and other trades.

The collieries in the Whitehaven area were notorious for the amount of Firedamp (methane) they produced, and the number of fatal explosions which occured. The mines were so dangerous that the area was chosen in 1816, to test Sir Humphrey Davy's new safety lamp "in the severest possible conditions".

Many of the surviving mine remains today are preserved as memorials to the men, women and children who lost their lives in the Whitehaven Collieries.

King Pit

A short walk along the cliff top from the Haig Colliery (NGR: NX 9670 1760) a small stone cairn marks the site of King Pit.

Sunk in 1750, by Carlisle Spedding the famous Mine Agent for the Lowther family. By 1793 King pit had reached the "Six Quarters" seam at a depth of 160 fathoms or 960 feet (295m) plus a sump 7 fathoms deep (marked on an old plan) making it not only the deepest in the world at that time, but the first to pass the 1,000 foot mark.

An interesting feature of Whitehaven and surrounding areas is that there is a large expanse of grass land along the top of the cliffs, with the houses being set well back. The main reason for this is that at one time all the mines, railways and inclines were along the cliff tops, these have now gone to leave the open space - which is useful as the cliffs seem fairly unstable today!

Saltom Pit

(NGR: NX 9642 1732) Sunk in 1729 by Carlisle Spedding, on a small area of flat land below the cliffs near to Haig Colliery. To reach the pit today, you walk to the cliff edge from the car park at Haig Pit, then follow the cliff path along until it drops down to the sea.

Saltom pit initially pumped from the "Main Band" seam at a depth of 456ft (138m) and was the first large scale mine to work coal from under the sea - at the time any coal worked from under the sea was Crown property, but the mine was worked for nearly 150 years before any levy's were paid! During the sinking of this pit Spedding also pioneered the use of gunpowder for breaking rock.

Coal was raised by horse gin to surface at Saltom then trammed through a tunnel to Ravenhill pit for lifting to the cliff top. The shaft was deepened in 1820 to below the "Six Quarters" at a depth of 838 feet (255m) and a steam winder erected to replace the horse gin.

Saltom Pit was used as a central pumping station, draining many of the other local mines via a drift driven in the 1790's. It ceased coaling in 1848, but continued pumping until 1866.

Remains include: horse-gin site (between the engine house and the cliffs), stone chimney, the 1820 vertical winding engine house (Crowther type, with stone bearing blocks) - the winding drum was in the open on the landward side of the house. The strange iron box around the shaft top is no longer visible as land slippage continues to cover the site, destroying about half of the horse-gin area. The pump houses were north and west of the shaft and disappeared beneath the landslips in the early 1970s.

Wellington Pit

(NGR: NX 9678 1825) About a ½mile from Haig, heading towards Whitehaven along the cliff tops is Wellington Pit.

It was sunk in 1838 and finally closed in 1932. This was a very 'fiery' pit, and the scene of numerous accidents including a major disaster which claimed 136 lives in May 1910 (some say there was one unrecorded death due to a mix up over duplicate names). The most striking feature of this mine is its “Candlestick” chimney which is a landmark for the area, standing on a hill top overlooking the harbour. The chimney was the original chimney for the boiler house which stood next to the winder on the middle level of the site. It was superseded by new boilers on the lower level in 1866 (when a pump was installed to dewater the mine after a fire in 1863 and to replace Saltom Pit).

No.3 shaft was sunk 1903-5 on the old boiler site to replace Duke Pit as the upcast for the pit. When Nos.1 and 2 shafts were filled and capped in 1969, No.3 was only capped. A pipe was laid from beneath the cap through the old boiler flue drift to the “Candlestick” to vent gas at a safe, high, level.

The only other feature of the mine to survive is a white crenellated building nearby, which was the entrance lodge for the pit. The ‘castle’ style construction of many of the mining remians in this area was part of Sydney Smirke's ‘medievalization’ of the pits in the 1850’s.

A plaque on the wall below the chimney commemorates all the “Men, Women and Children” of the Whitehaven District Collieries who lost their lives in the local pits.

To visit Wellington Pit: park in the overflow car park of the Beacon Centre (on the harbourside) then walk up the short path to the chimney.

Howgill Incline

(NGR: NX 9677 1825) The original incline ran down beside Wellington pit, built in 1813 (replacing an earlier horse drawn tramway) to connect Saltom pit waggonway to the harbour. This is 230 yards long, with a vertical drop of 115 feet. It was a self-acting incline, 1 loaded wagon travelling down the incline could raise 3 empties.

The line of the incline is still visible as an overgrown stone wall enclosed “ditch” running to the Beacon which stands on the site of the staith house and hurries. It is crossed by a bridge carrying the road from Duke to Wellington Lodge.

A second incline, which started at the same place on the cliff top ran towards the harbour, past the “Candlestick” chimney of Wellington pit was constructed in 1923 as the old incline couldn't handle the output from the new Haig Pit. It went through a tunnel, now filled, below the Wellington Lodge. It was in use until the cliff top railway was destroyed by a landslip in 1974.

Duke Pit

(NGR: NX 9695 1810) The most obvious remnant of this pit is the preserved remains of the fan house on the hillside over looking the harbour.

The first shaft was sunk in 1747 as a coal drawing shaft using a horse-gin, but also in conjunction with other nearby entrances it provided some form of ventilation. In 1806 firedamp was burned at the shaft foot at the "Main Band" level to create a ventilation current. In 1820 the old shaft was deepened and a new one sunk, both to the "Six Quarters" seam. The new shaft was the air shaft and had furnaces at the "Main Band" horizon while a steam winder was erected to draw from the old shaft replacing the horse-gin.

In 1840 a fan was trialled "in the upcast shaft" although details are difficult to trace. In 1869 the proposal-plan for a 36 ft. diameter Guibel fan showed the winder house (the base of one wall remains to the NE of the fan house), both shafts, and the pencilled outline of the proposed building in the pit yard. At this time the upcast was being used to ventilate Wellington Pit (with a furnace, Duke Pit had closed in 1844) and the old shaft was in use for manriding. The following year both were connected to the new Guibal fan as upcasts.

Both shafts are adjacent to the surviving fan house, the upcast beneath the round tower at the NW end, the old shaft 49 feet (centre to centre) away near the square evasee tower.

The surviving ‘medieval’ style Guibal fan house is claimed to be one of the few surviving examples of this type of fan house.

The Beacon Centre

(NGR: NX 9694 1823) Opened in 1996, on the South side of Whitehaven harbour, the Centre tells the story of Whitehaven's maritime, industrial and social history - it is open daily and there is an admission charge, but its well worth a visit.

Local Characters

Carlisle Spedding

The famous Mine Agent or 'Steward' for the Lowther family, he invented the miners ‘steel mill’ due to the firey nature of the pits of this area. The hand cranked mill basically generated light by holding a piece of flint against a rotating hardened steel disc - it was not totally safe, but considered safer than candles!

Among his other achievements was: the first use of gunpowder for blasting underground, the development of underground ventilation known as Coursing the air, and along with local Scientist William Brownrigg he proposed using methane (from the mines) to light street lamps (nearly 200 years before it happened!).

Sadly he was killed near Whitehaven by a minor pit explosion in 1755.

Dr. William Brownrigg

A trained chemist, Brownrigg was the first to investigate the nature of fire-damp (methane) - as found in mines. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society for this work. He also discovered that the possibility of pit explosions could be predicted by studying barometric pressures (a 'falling glass' increased the chance of explosions). It is now complusory for coal mines to maintain records of barometric pressure. He also conducted a number of important experiments into the production of salt - from sea water and in pouring oil on 'troubled water' (at Derwentwater, Cumbria) with Benjamin Franklin (from the USA).

The Lowther Family

This family was responsible for developing large scale coal mining in the Whitehaven area.

The family owned the Whitehaven estate of the former St.Bees Priory - sized by the Crown in the 1530's following the Dissolution of the Monestries. Industrial development of the estate started with Sir Christopher Lowther in 1630. He started to develop deep coal mines to supply Dublin with the coal it desperately needed. To attract the workforce that he needed he also systematically developed the town of Whitehaven.

Sir Christopher Lowther died in 1640 (aged 33) but successive members of the Lowther family continued his work, resulting in Whitehaven becomming the first post medieval Planned Town in England. The Lowther family finally leased their pits in 1880, ending over 200 years of direct control.

Thanks to:

Haig Colliery Preservation Society for help with information.

I.A.Recordings for use of freeze frames from their video archive for some of these pictures.

Credits:

Initial Report & pictures: Kelvin Lake

Additional historical facts: John Brown, Assistant Colliery Surveyor Haig 1966-86, who worked on the programme of shaft filling and capping and separation of Haig and Wellington in 1968-9).